Matthew 5:9"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”Aaron was the High-priest. From him and his children descend the High-Priesthood of Israel. It stands therefore to reason that since believers are to model themselves according to character of Aaron, the high priest (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5, 9). Aaron’s character is unveiled for us in Psalms 133. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity (V. 1)! Aaron was known in Jewish literature to be a man active in solving conflicts between brothers, avidly working towards the unity of the spirit. The Master also encouraged His disciples to be ‘peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9). It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes (V. 2)! In ‘brothers dwelling together in unity’ the psalmist sees the fragrant golden anointing oil flowing from the head of Aaron down to his face and beards and clothing. The high-priest foreshadows Mashiach; he is an ‘anointed one’. And David who is a soldier and a man of many passions envisions in Aaron’s anointing the peace, unity and harmony of the Messianic era when Messiah will reign on the earth as the ‘Anointed One’ of God.It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion (V.3a)! Mt Hermon is far North of Israel, and its water shed does not reach Mt Zion in Judean Jerusalem. The description is midrashic, it is a Talmudic analogy. In Talmudic texts, because dew seems to emerge from the ground, it is used as an illustration to the resurrection. Again the writer longs for the peace of the messianic of Messiah on earth, the time of the resurrection of the dead that will initiate from Mt Zion. For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (V.3b). Amen!As priests of the Most-High God, as disciples of the Master (Exodus 19:6; Mathew 5: 9; 1 Peter 2:5, 9)., may the same be said of us. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the conquest of conflict, of conflict within and without. When we hate, we become like the enemy and have lost the battle for our soul. Smart sounding people have often mocked and criticized the Master for the idea of ‘turning the other cheek’ making it look weak and pacifistic, but that was far from the idea. What Yeshua was promoting was something akin to civil resistance: standing your grounds while not giving an inch of land, morals, or ideals to the enemy while he tires and exhausts his own resources in beating us down. He was teaching the Torah concepts of not giving in an inch to hatred and desire for revenge because it is forbidden in the Torah; that my friend is real strength coming from above; anyone can weaken into hatred and anger; only the strong can conquer them.

Ephesians 2:14For he himself (Messiah) is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.Everything about the Tabernacle was designed to mirror immortality. It is the reason why offerings were salted and why honey and leaven were forbidden on the altar. Resinous shittim wood also like cedar is resistant to corruption. On the third after the offering meat turns rancid, so after two days (on the third day) any meat from peace offerings was to be burnt. Anyone who partook of the meat of a peace offering on the third invalidated the offering and was regarded as cut off (Leviticus 7:16-21).This brings us into the ‘third day’ reoccurring theme of the Scriptures. Rather than seeing corruption, on the third day meat from a peace offering put on incorruptibility through being burnt. The fire of the altar, a fire which originated from heaven, lifts the offering back to heaven in the form of smoke (Leviticus 9:23-24). In the story of Samson, we see an example of the ‘Angel of the Lord’, (who is really Messiah) rising back to Heaven through the smoke of a burnt offering called in Hebrew the ‘olah’ or the ‘ascent’ (Judges 13:20). The peace offering is the only one in which the offerer partakes. It is symbolic of communion and fellowship with God through a meal. Hospitality was a big thing in the East and to invite someone to eat showed great acceptance. In the same way eating with God shows He accepts us. Moses and seventy-three other people ate with God on the mountain and the whole congregation of Messiah’s people will eat with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Exodus 24:11; Revelations 19:9).The Passover Lamb being a shadow of Messiah is a peace offering as people partake of it. Paul often used the imagery of the peace offering to describe Messiah’s role in our lives (1 Corinthians 10:18; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14; Colossians 1:20). In the same way, His body was not allowed to see corruption (Psalms 16:10; 49:9) but as a proper peace offering, He rose from the tomb on the third day.Hoseah prophecied on the resurrection of Israel’s great Diaspora (exile) in the following words: "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him (Hoseah 6:1-2). Seeing as with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8), the prophet prophesied of the resurrection of Israel on the third millennium of the present exile, third millennium in which we are also witnessing the resurrection of the Jewish state which contains a strong Messianic first fruit element of believers which brings it incorruptibility. In this day, in our day, the peace offering is finally being consumed. At the time appointed, at the sound of the great shofar of the Last Day, it will rise to Him in immortality and find fellowship with God. All those who partake of Messiah’s offering of peace are part of this everlasting promise.

Matthew 3:11"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.The fire of the altar was to be kept burning continuously (Leviticus 6:12). It was to never be put out. Even when travelling the fire of the altar was to be kept low under a brass cover with coal still seething in order to use them to light a new fire at the time of the next offering. The whole idea was to preserve the original fire with which God lit the original first offering (Leviticus 9:23-24). That first fire was not of human origin. It came from the throne of God Himself and became the medium by which everything burnt by and on it transcended back to the heavenly realm. Without this fire, the altar is no more than a glorified barbecue pit and nothing burnt on it goes any higher than our atmosphere, much less transcends to the heavenly sphere. It is the meaning behind Yeshua’s mystic saying, No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven (John 3:13). This is also why the sons of Aaron were punished for bringing to the altar ‘strange fire’, a fire which did not originate from above. Homiletically speaking, this fire teaches us much. Faith in Messiah cannot be something originated from earthly personal emotions or charismatic meetings. It must be something kindled from the spiritual reality, from the spiritual fire which is from above. This is the whole difference between ‘living faith’ and ‘dead religion’. Our obedience to commandments may be all good and well but without being enflamed by faith in Messiah, it is nothing more than rote rituals, and since Messiah was created and revealed to His people from the beginning of the creation (Revelations 3:14; Romans 3:2), this truth is self-evident as of before Yeshua’s manifestation on earth. We can see it in the patriarchs that we know of such as Abraham whose faith was based on belief in the resurrection (Hebrews 11: 19), of David who in the Psalms incessantly speaks of Messiah, of Job (Job 19:25), and of a host of others.In essence spirituality not enflamed by a consuming faith in Messiah is similar to a, offering on a cold altar; and godly actions, even in obedience to Torah, consumed by any other elements than this consuming faith in Messiah becomes idolatry. Maybe this is the idea behind Yeshua’s rejection of many who will come to him in the end proclaiming all their good works for Him (Luke 13:26-27; Matthew 7:21-23); they offered strange fire (Leviticus 10:1-2). May our faith be more than an earthly emotional high originating from the mechanics of sounds and lights used in today’s pulpits. May our faith come from an all-consuming fire (yet safe and controlled like Moses’ burning bush) to challenge the powers that be, to deliver us from ‘Pharaoh’, and bring us even by night through to the Promised Land!

Hebrews 13:15-16Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.In the sixth chapter of Leviticus we discover the daily offering called ‘the Tamid’ meaning, ‘the perpetual offering’ (Leviticus: 6: 8-13). This twice daily offering is supposed to be perpetual before the Lord. It represents the intercessory lamb perpetually standing before the Father; the one killed in the morning when Yeshua was put on the cross, and the second killed in the afternoon when the Master remitted His Spirit into the hands of the Father. Even after the death and resurrection of the Master, the Jerusalem disciples as well as all these new Jewish believers from the nations them continued attending the twice daily service at the Temple (Acts 2:46). The theology that Yeshua had replaced all offerings never existed in the disciples mind and it was never an issue for them. This theology was later fabricated by non-Jewish Christian apologists.When believers were eventually forbidden entrance to synagogues and Temple, (just as Yeshua had predicted would happen showing that believers would continue attendance (John 16:2)) they were very distraught. It was a religious disaster. This disaster became national when in 70 C.E. all Jews were barred access to the Temple because it had been destroyed by the Romans. Jewish people, believers and non-believers alike then turned their eyes to the sages who seemed to have anticipated the issue. A homiletic interpretation of a verse in Hoseah offered an answer to the crisis. The verse says, Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips (Hoseah 14:2). Jewish religious leaders used this verse to teach the people that when they recite the order of the offerings (words), it is as if they offered them as ‘bulls’ on the altar (b. meguilah 31a). Also the word ‘bulls’ in Hebrew being spelled the same way as the word ‘fruits’ gave birth to the idea of offerings made in such a way being called the ‘fruits of the lips’. Until this day, Synagogue services consist of the reciting of the offerings at the appropriate times.This theme was actually endorsed by he who wrote the Book of Hebrews. Referencing Hoseah, the epistle writer encourages the Jewish believers that while barred from Synagogue and Temple, they should offer to God sacrifices of prayer, praise, good deeds and sharing. He says, Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Along verbal offerings, they were also exhorted to do good deeds and to share, Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God (Hebrews 13:15-16). May we through our mouths and actions continually offer our offerings of prayer, praise, good deeds (obedience to the Commandments) and sharing, for these are pleasing to Him!.

Luke 22:46"Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation."The first chapters of the Book of Leviticus teach us about the importance of offerings as means of approaching God. In the forty-third chapter of Isaiah, God complains that Israel has become weary of Him; that His people give their attention to idols of metal, stone and wood, and that when it come times to serve Him, they are not available. They are like a spouse who has become bored in their relationship with their lover.The Sages of Israel put it this way: A man stands engaged in his business transactions all day long without growing weary, but when it is time to pray to Me, then he is too weary. A man stands engaged in his business transactions all day long without getting weary, but if his friend says to him, “come and pray”, he replies that he is not able to do so. A man will sit all day long without getting tired, but as soon as he gets up to say prayers he feels tired. A man will sit all day long without growing drowsy, but as soon as he sits down to study he feels drowsy. (Lamentations Rabbah chapt 10; Ester Rabbah 4:8). I am a married man of thirty two years. My wife and I have raised 6 children. One thing we have learned is that it takes work to keep a marriage relationship alive and interesting. One of the best marriage advice I ever received is, “Your wife loves God, so become the man God wants you to become and your wife will fall in love with you; she will fall in love with the Spirit of God within you”. I think it works both ways. A man who loves God will also fall in love with the Spirit of God in his wife.In the case of Israel and God, I think that God does not fail to keep things exciting for us. The problem was that Israel got its eyes off Adonai and distracted by the false glitter of idols.Today idolatry is not such a problem, but distraction is. If we feel that God is not enough, maybe we do not invest ourselves enough in the elements of our relationship with Him. Our eyes are somewhere else, on the world, instead of focused on the things He has for us. May we learn to return to Him; to say with the psalmist, light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death (Psalms 13:3); My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net (Psalms_25:15).

2 Corinthians 5:21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.While reading much differently from its English processed translations, the Hebrew text of the second verse of the first chapter of the Book of Leviticus presents interesting messianic insights. I do not believe that this is due to some voluntary malefic action, but rather to a reading of the Hebrew with an already established theology. Our usual translations of the verse read something to the effect of: “When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD … (Leviticus 1:2), but a more literal translation of the text would read, (my translation) “When a man from among you (you: 2nd person plural) desires to come near Me with an offering …” The word for ‘man’ is ‘adam’, the same as the name of the first man ‘Adam’. This did not pass the attention of Chassidic teacher Rabbi Schneur Zalman who in 1812 suggested a deeper meaning in the verse coming to the messianic conclusion of the existence of a ‘supernatural/spiritual’ ‘Adam’ who approaches God on the behalf of Israel. Based on the vision of Ezekiel in which he saw ‘a figure with the appearance of a ‘man’ or ‘Adam’ Jewish teachings sometime offer the idea of a heavenly Adam;. It is to this spiritual ‘Adam’ the Rabbi refers to.This may sound far-fetched, but only until we read Paul teaching along the same lines in, The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47). Understanding that everything on earth was created after an heavenly pattern, we understand that Paul’s accounting of first and second refers only to the chronology of this ‘Adam’s’ earthly manifestations. The Rabbi was right. Israel does have an ‘Adam’, who approaches God on our behalf, and who lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25 referring to Isaiah 53:12). He is our Burnt Offering in Hebrew called ‘olah’ or ‘ascension’, an image of a total submission and consumption in God and ascending to Him (Leviticus 1:3; Matthew 26:39; John 3:13-15). He is our Grain Offering (Leviticus 2:2; Matthew 26:26), our Peace Offering which is an image of communion and fellowship with God (Leviticus 3:1; John 14:27; Revelations 19:9). He also is our Sin Offering for involuntary sins (Leviticus 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:21 (the word for sin in Hebrew or Greek also means: sin offering); Hebrews 9:28); and our Guilt Offering ((Leviticus 5:19; Isaiah 53: 10-11).In studying the eternal offering ordinances in the Book of Leviticus, we learn about Yeshua’s eternal intercessory role in our lives. It is one and the same thing, and since He completes them (Matthew 5:17), if the offerings become obsolete as some teach, Yeshua also becomes obsolete, God forbid!May we always be granted to confidently approach God through Him who is our Eternal Intercessory Offering in a spirit of submission and humility, in full knowledge of our sin and personal unworthiness.

Matthew 11:29“… I am meek and lowly in heart: …”The Hebrew text of Scriptures has several letters that differ in size, some bigger than the overall text, some smaller. As such, the last letter of the first word of the Book of Leviticus, ‘Vayikra’ is smaller than the rest of the text. The extreme scrutiny under which this text has been copied and recopied over the millennia forbids us to assume a scribal error. Why then would Moses have diminished the ‘aleph’ in the word ‘vayikra’: ‘And He called’?The Oracles Moses wrote down cannot just be read as a chronological string of words giving instructions. Repetitions have their value in emphasis as well as the placement of certain commands within the text. The choice of certain words and their lexical root also tell us much about the underlying meaning. We are not used to pay such attention to these things but this is part of the cultural context of the text, and sad to say, many of these vital details are lost in translation. We do not really have a satisfying answer concerning the diminishing of the aleph in the first word of the Book of Leviticus ‘Vayikra’, but since Torah students hate a vacuum, here is the most widely accepted reason for it. The word ‘vayikra’ means ‘And He (God) called … (Leviticus 1:1)’. Moses whom God defined as the humblest of all men did not think himself worthy of being singled out and called by God, so he originally wrote ‘Vayikar’, a much more impersonal inflection of the verb which is also the one used in the Torah when the Angel of the Lord met with the idolatrous prophet Balaam. God disapproved of the comparison, so Moses reluctantly acquiesced and wrote that last aleph, but smaller. Of course this story is not true, but thus being so, it has it does have its own homiletic value. The sages here describe Moses, the man blessed with the highest form of divine revelation one could ever be blessed with, as a person who did not even feel worthy of his calling. This sets Moses, the greatest of the teachers and prophets of Israel, as a trend setter, a blue-print for teachers and would-be prophets. There is a dictum in Judaism which was also used by Yeshua, ‘ With the same measure that a man uses, it will be measured to him’ (Matthew 7:2). It is believed that because Moses humbled himself, God also humbled Himself and called Moses from the Tabernacle. In a certain sense, God did humble Himself in sending Yeshua, as the ‘prophet’ like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18), who , being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, … (Philippians 2:8). Many desire to be teachers and prophets. May we never forget the blue-print of self-effacement and humility that is to be the earmark for all those who are to be used by God in the capacity of teaching and leading His flock. That is the standard that should be used by, not eloquence, depth, or intelligence, but the spirit of utter humility because, He dwells in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15).

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This week we are studying the gory details of the beginning of the Book of Leviticus concerning the Levitical offerings. These consist of an uncomfortable text more worthy of a conversation between butchers than a spiritual manual on the concepts of communication with God. Yet, it may surprise many to know that at the age of five, Leviticus used to be the first book required of Jewish children to learn for their spiritual education.

Today, because there is no temple, the Book of Leviticus is 'tossed under the bus' of irrelevancy. Yet, in full knowledge of what will happen to the Temple, God gave these important words as part of the main oracles of His manifestation on Mt Horeb. They are a substantial part of God's Word; how can so many Christians claim God's Word to be obsolete just because it seems so far removed from their current culture that they don't understand it.

In spite of Paul's statement that the Levitical offerings were never intended for salvation (Hebrews 9:9), many people endorse the notion that the Levitical offerings were for the purpose of sin atonement and that therefore they are obsolete in these post Yeshua-death-and-resurrection days. If it is so, somehow Yeshua forgot to inform the disciples who lived with Him for three years, as in the Book of Acts, they attend the twice daily worship times at the Temple which consists of an animal offering (Acts 3:1). Also, when Paul came to Jerusalem, he paid the expenses for the animal offerings to break not only his own Nazarite vow, but that of four other Jewish believers in Yeshua (Acts 21). History books tell us that Jewish believers in Israel actually continued Temple attendance until it was destroyed. The sacrificial system was never an issue for them; they always understood that these were forever ordinances. Yeshua Himself said that He did not come to abolish the Torah (that includes the sacrificial system of worship), but to complete it (Matthew 5:17).

A closer look at the Hebrew language used in the text reveals that actually Leviticus is a lesson on approaching God with protocol, honor, and respect. It also teaches us the role of Yeshua in our lives. Even the Hebrew word for atonement; caphar' reveals the nature of the offering as not being a ransom, or a price for sins, but a protective covering: a shield. God is Holy and a 'consuming fire'. We need the protective shield of the Master Yeshua in order to approach God and this is what the Levitical offerings teach us in many levels. David actually called the Messiah: the shield of salvation.

Thanks be to Hashem. He has provided the shield/covering of the Lamb to cover our nakedness (Genesis 3:21) that we may approach Him confidently with our requests. Yeshua simply brought the final piece of the puzzle that activated the whole system: His innocent death as a righteous person. May you and yours also all come under His covering, that you may approach the Father with all confidence with your requests.

Luke 10:42But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.Moses gathers the Congregation of Israel to give them the instructions concerning the building of the Tabernacle. No matter how important this work is, they must stop everything to honor the Sabbath (Exodus 35). To cancel the Sabbath because of God’s work is like the story I read one time about a little girl who canceled the time she usually spent with her father in the evening in order to knit him bedroom slippers. The father was broken-hearted. God may appreciate the bedroom slippers, but He’d rather have us!This training on the importance of Sabbath-keeping continues until today within congregation of Jewish believers. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus made sure Yeshua was entombed before the coming of the Sabbath. The Marys who took care of His body waited till the Sabbath was over to embalm Him. If Yeshua had made the Sabbath obsolete, they didn’t seem to know. In the first century C. E., the historian Josephus reports that in his time there was not a single city in the whole Roman Empire where the Jewish custom of Sabbath-keeping was not practiced. This was because of the Yeshua believers disseminated throughout the Empire. Up to the fourth century Constantine was passing laws against the Yeshua believers forbidding this practice. Why did he do that if believers were not practicing it? Obviously, Yeshua expected His disciples to continue the practice until the end; He even gave a prophecy about it (Matthew 24:20). In Sabbath observant homes, each Friday night the idea of Moses gathering the Children of Israel to first keep the Sabbath before instructing them about the Tabernacle is repeated when a father gathers his family around the Sabbath table. He is like Moses, and his family is like the congregation. Throughout the Bible, the congregation is compared to the Bride. On Friday night the father speaks Proverbs 31 to his wife. This proverb is often used by spiritually abusive men to keep their wives under submission. They put their own twist under the word ‘virtuous’, describing a mousy yielded and submitted women who lives only to serve her husband. Reading the whole proverb actually reveals that this virtuous woman was anything but mousy. Along with being a mother, she was a business woman working hard not behind or under her husband, but alongside beside him. The ‘wife’ language in the proverb is actually an analogy. It is the same analogy Paul uses with the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:25-32).. Both the Proverb and the Paul’s admonition speak of the Congregation and its responsibility as the Bride to work this Endtime harvest alongside with our ‘Husband’. In this respect, since man is the head of the woman (even though the woman may often be the neck that turns it), Proverbs 31 is for men, about their jobs of leading their families and the congregation in the ways and the work of the Master.As faithful brides coming from the harvest in the wings, may God grant us for as long as possible the joy and freedom to come and ‘sabbath’ in His loving arms.

Matthew 22:37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.Before starting the construction of the Tabernacle, the Children of Israel were commanded to observe the ceasing from creative activity on the Sabbath day. “Oh but, how can we observe the Sabbath? There is no Synagogue, no Temple, no building to go to in order to have a service! We certainly can’t have Sabbath without a building to get together and have a service on Saturday morning (I am being sarcastic)!” Faith based on worship at a certain place on a certain day is common to most religious systems. Whereas for community sake it is good and even needed to have regular meetings and fellowships, I wonder if that was God’s core original idea. After all, the synagogue service was only a post-exilic organizational attempt to expose people to the Word. of Torah, that they may know how to live godly lives and not be sent back to exile. With such a system though, in the end religion gets removed from home’s daily life and revolves around what we do on that day in that place. Our teenagers then see who we are at home and who we are at the place of worship and feel that we are hypocrites, and maybe we are. What was then God’s core idea? And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).The core idea was that regardless of our other fellowship activities, our religious lifestyle is a home-based worship system, where God is involved in every aspect of our lives from the time we wake till the time we sleep.The Jewish Friday night custom of sanctifying (separating/distinguishing) the Sabbath day is a microcosm of the Tabernacle, of the Tabernacle who represents God’s presence with His people. The two candles on the table remind us of the Menorah; the Challah loaf on the table speaks of the Bread of Presence; the wine of the daily libation; the festive meal of the Sabbath double-offering portion; and the prayers of the altar of incense. It is home-base service officiated by the father and the mother in the presence of their children and extended families. The Saturday fellowship is good but it is an extra. I would paraphrase Yeshua and say that ‘it is Friday night which sanctifies Saturday service’, not the opposite. To go to Saturday service and not sanctify the Sabbath at home on Friday night with your family misses the whole purpose. It’s a family thing. On Friday night it is customary for the husband to give an ode to his wife using Proverbs 31; the wife does the same to her husband and they both bless the children. God doesn’t just want to fellowship with us in a building somewhere when we are on our best behavior, He wants to be invited to live at the very core of our lives, to hear how we talk to each other at the table, witness how we interact and treat each other during the commonest of household functions. How else can we get His correction input if we always play ‘games’ in front of Him (which He is actually not fooled by anyways)?As we live our lives, may we allow Him to be present with all our thoughts, may His Word be in our mouth when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise. May we bind them as a sign on our hand, and may they be as frontlets between our eyes. May they be written on the doorposts of our house and on our gates, … and on our hearts!